| View Larger Image | Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea; Epithalamion; Merciless Beauty | Audio CDBenjamin Luxon (Performer), Stephen Roberts (Performer), David Waterman (Performer), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Performer), David Willcocks (Performer), Meredith Davies (Performer), Jonathan Snowden (Performer), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Performer), Orchestra Nova of London (Performer), Howard Shelley (Performer), Margaret Price (Performer), Norma Burrowes (Performer), Valerie Hill (Performer), Philip Langridge (Performer), Andrew Watkinson (Performer), James Clark (Performer)
| List Price: | $13.98 | |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Format: | Import | | Studio: | EMI Classics Imports | | Release Date: | January 09, 2001 | | Sales Rank: | 224,712th |
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TRACK LISTING |
Disc: 1
- Track 1: Riders to the Sea, opera: "Where is she?"
- Track 2: Riders to the Sea, opera: "Where is the bit of new rope"
- Track 3: Riders to the Sea, opera: "Wait, Nora"
- Track 4: Riders to the Sea, opera: "You didn't give him his bit of bread?"
- Track 5: Riders to the Sea, opera: "Bartley will be lost now"
- Track 6: Riders to the Sea, opera: "They are all gone now"
- Track 7: Merciless Beauty, rondels (3) for soprano or tenor, 2 violins & cello (or voice & piano): No. 1, "Your eyen two"
- Track 8: Merciless Beauty, rondels (3) for soprano or tenor, 2 violins & cello (or voice & piano): No. 2, "So hath your beauty"
- Track 9: Merciless Beauty, rondels (3) for soprano or tenor, 2 violins & cello (or voice & piano): No. 3, "Since I from love"
- Track 10: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 1, "Prologue": "Early, before the worl
- Track 11: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 2, "Wake Now": "Wake now, my love, awa
- Track 12: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 3, "The Calling of the Bride": "Now is
- Track 13: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 4, "The Minstrels": "Hark how the mini
- Track 14: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 5, "Procession of the Bride": "Lo! whe
- Track 15: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 6, "The Temple Gates": "Open the templ
- Track 16: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 7, "The Bell Ringers": "Ring y the bel
- Track 17: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 8, "The Lover's Song": "Ah! When will
- Track 18: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 9, "The Minstrel's Song": "Now welomce
- Track 19: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 10, "Song of the Winged Loves": "The w
- Track 20: Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on 'The Bridal Day'): No. 11, "Prayer to Juno": "And thou, great
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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Vaughan Williams operatic masterpiece by Rodney Gavin Bullock (Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre)  5 Stars
December 26, 2003
None of Vaughan Williams' five operas have entered the repertoire despite the fact that they all contain glorious music. 'Sir John in Love' ought to be staged from time to time but 'Riders to the Sea' is a masterpice with a fatal, programming fault: it is too short. Lasting only 30-40 minutes, it is almost impossible to fit into a company's evening schedule. Happily, this length might well suit the domestic listener who has a short time at the end of the day and does not want to embark on a three hour marathon.The composer does not call it an opera but a 'setting' of a one act play of the same name by the Irish playright, J.M.Synge. It is the story of a fishing family on an island off the west coast of Ireland. The mother, Maurya, has already lost her father, husband and some of her sons to the sea and the action starts with the finding of a drowned man whose clothes fit the description of those belonging to her son Michael. Her worst fears are confirmed yet her remaining son, Bartley, insists on going to the horsefair on the mainland despite her pleading. He, too, is drowned and Maurya is left with her two daughters. The sea has taken virtually everything from her but, surprisingly, Maurya rises above her grief - "They are all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me."The music and text are closely integrated in a symphonic way. The score calls for a sea machine which is used in an atmospheric way similar to the way RVW uses the wind machine in Sinfonia Antartica. There are no numbers and the atmosphere is somewhat grim throughout, as can be imagined. It needs close listening to reveal all its secrets. Maurya's final, long aria is very beautiful and emotionally very powerful and the opera ends in unexpected repose.The three Chaucer Rondels, 'Merciless Beauty', is here recorded with tenor and string trio. The disc is completed by the cantata 'Epithalamion', which is something of a rarity. Epithalamion is a song or poem in praise of the bride and bridegroom and the composer's cantata derives from a masque he wrote in 1939 based on poems by Edmund Spenser. The dances were removed to produce the work which is for baritone, chorus, piano, flute and string orchestra. Lasting for over half an hour, it is a considerable work in the composers most lyrical vein and it ought to be better known.All the performances are first rate, particularly Helen Watts as Maurya. The recording of the opera dates from 1971 but wears its age lightly. The other recordings date from 1987.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress: A Bunyan Sequence
by Matthew Best, Corydon Singers, John Gielgud, Ursula Howells, Aidan Oliver, Richard Pasco, David Rix, Christine Barratt, John Bowen, Joya Logan
Ralph Vaughan Williams (Performer)
"The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come: Delivered under the similitude of a dream..." So begins John Gielgud's narration--and his subsequent reading of the role of Christian--in this superb adaptation of Vaughan Williams's radio play, based on scenes from John Bunyan's classic allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. Different from the composer's later opera, this work fares well on disc, fueled by dramatic characterizations and affecting music. --David Vernier
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| Riders To The Sea- An Opera By Ralph Vaughan Williams
Starring: Sarah Walker, Yvonne Brennan
Directed By: Louis Lentin
Producer and Director: LOUIS LENTIN
Set Design: JAY CLEMENTS
Costume Design: CAROL BETERA
Lighting Director: JIM KELLETT
Maurya: Sarah Walker
Cathleen: Yvonne Brennan
Nora: Kathleen Tynan
Bartley: Hugh Mackey
A Woman: Mary Sheridan De Bruin
The Radio Telefís Éireann Chamber Choir and Concert Orchestra
Conductor BRYDEN THOMSON
Riders to the Sea is Vaughan Williams' most successful operatic achievement. It is short, but...
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